Until the End
by dangerousandbeautiful
Summary: The world has a new race: zombies. When a sexy voice on the radio speaks of a safe place, Bella and a group of survivors head to Brazil. Edward is surprised to find that beauty does still exist in such a terrible world.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I know. I've gone crazy. I need to stop watching Resident Evil.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Or any zombies. Thank God.

Until the End

Chapter One

Four months. That was all the time it had taken for the world to end. It seemed like such a minuscule amount, not enough time to build a house or even create a life. But it felt like forever. When there's nothing to look forward to, no light at the end of the tunnel, four months of hell can start to make a person lose his or her mind.

It started in February 2012. I'd expected the apocalypse, but not in the form of flesh eating, undead monsters. I remembered being excited for the iPhone 6 coming out in the summer. No one knew how it had started, but once it did, there was no stopping it. I had yet to see a zombie for myself up close. Jacob never let me leave the safety of our group. It was the same with all the women and children. We had been very lucky for the most part. We had started just shy of fifty people, the only ones left in Forks after the evacuation, but now there were only thirty of us traveling towards Brazil.

My father had been one of our leaders, he and a few Quileute men, Sam Uley and Billy Black. We had lost Billy early on; he'd broken his leg and with no doctor to help him, he had become a liability. After a tearful goodbye and good luck, he made us leave without him, giving us all his guns but one, insisting he would hold off anything that came our way. We were traveling slowly, trying to find other survivors on the way.

My father, Charlie, had been bitten two months after we left, and hid it from me until he started to change. The change took twenty four hours, and he decided to die instead of fight it. I didn't find out about any of it until after Jacob shot him. I never even got to say goodbye. He hadn't wanted me to see him like that, his eyes going glassy and losing all sense of humanity. He'd made Jacob promise to take care of me from then on. I didn't even cry when I learned my dad had died. I'd simply looked at Jacob and held it in, returning to my cooking.

My eyes clenched at the memory. The only things I had left to remember my parents were their wedding rings. I had had my mom's since I was eleven, when she died of breast cancer, and Jacob gave me my dad's after he killed him. I was thankful my mother hadn't lived to see what the world had come to. I resented Jacob a little after Charlie's death. I knew he was only following my dad's orders, but I still wished he had just let me see him one more time, if only to say "I love you" and "I'll see you again sometime." At the same time I was thankful Jacob had the strength to kill Charlie. I knew if it had been me with the gun, I wouldn't have been able to do it.

Now we were living in stolen campers, siphoning gas from abandoned vehicles and getting food from convenient stores. Technology didn't work for us anymore; cell phones didn't get signals and electricity was a no-go. The only kind of communication we had that still worked was our radio, but we had no speaker to reply to any broadcaster. Plumbing thankfully still worked, and we used generators for a while until we realized the sound alerted the monsters to our presence. We spent a whole month in Colorado looking for survivors. No one came to us, though. People were terrified. Everyone was scared of the chance that the zombies would gain some intelligence on top of the instinct to constantly feed, and then they would be the superiority. They were definitely the majority right now. We guessed they outnumbered humans ten to one. We went from eight billion people in the world to only about one billion. The last country for the infection to hit was Australia. Because no one knew how it started, no one knew what to do to keep it from spreading. Australia had been everyone's evacuation target, but everything went wrong when the virus spread there, too.

I was currently in one of the five campers, cleaning the pots of grits from breakfast. My camper contained only women except for three young boys. There were two girls I'd gone to high school with, Jessica Stanley and Lauren Cohen. There were two little girls and their mothers. I didn't even remember all their names. We lost people every week—I figured there was no point. There was one other camper of women, only seven more, and the rest of our group was men. We'd had whole families of the fifty of us, married couples, old and young, but once one died, the other didn't last long. We even had a divorced couple on board. They bickered _all the time_, but they were stuck having to help each other. It would have been comical if the situation wasn't so morose.

"Hey," Jacob said, walking into the camper. I looked up from my dishes to give him my attention. He was shirtless, as always, with two guns secured on a belt and one on his muscular back. The June weather in Texas was very hot, and I chased a bead of sweat running down his chest with my eyes. "Come outside. You can do that later." I said nothing, and followed him out.

Before the infection, I'd had two best friends: Alice Brandon and Jacob. Alice, her boyfriend, and her family had evacuated with the others, all headed to Australia. I hadn't seen or heard from her since. We'd graduated together the May before, now only a year ago. Jacob and I had been friends since birth, but now that he was one of our leaders, he was always giving me orders, always in a rotten mood, trying to figure out what was best for all of us. He wasn't my Jacob anymore. I knew it wasn't his fault, but I hated the fact that he thought I had to do anything he commanded. Now I only had one best friend, and I had no idea where she was.

We traveled through the country, taking as many back roads as we could. Sometimes I didn't even pay attention to where we were; it didn't really matter to me anymore. The people spoke of how lucky it was that we hadn't run into any hordes yet. In all truth, the most number of zombies we had seen at one time was about twenty, the time my father had been bitten. We'd been in Colorado, and I'd watched from the safety of our camper, between the bars that had been placed on the windows, as our men fought the undead. We lost quite a few that night, and the women next to me cried more with every gunshot that rang through the air.

I wanted to fight, I wanted to learn! If we weren't careful, soon all the men would be gone and we women would be clueless to defend ourselves. I'd told Jacob this many times, and his answer was always the same. 

"Have you given any more thought to my suggestion?" I asked him as we walked towards the others. 

He didn't answer me, so I rolled my eyes and huffed loudly. He was irritating me again, and I wanted him to know it. 

"Bella, it won't come to that. Soon we'll be in South America, and we'll have the colony. We'll have bigger numbers, and you won't need to worry about defending yourself." 

"But Jacob-" 

"No buts, Bella." I walked in front of him and stopped so he would have to listen to me. 

"Just hear me out, okay? What if this whole "free of infection" colony in Brazil is a trick? What if the zombies have figured out a way to lure perfectly good flesh into their hands?" He put his hands on his hips and looked at me skeptically. "I'm serious, Jake. They could have huge numbers, and if you would train us, we could help! I mean, at least give us guns or something!" 

He threw his head back and laughed. "Me, give Bella Swan a gun? Bella, you would hurt yourself before you would even aim the damn thing." 

"And besides," he continued, "zombies can't even talk. The man on the radio is definitely a human. You see why I can't let you have a gun? You know nothing." 

Well, that certainly pissed me off. And I knew the man on the radio was human. I'd fantasized about that voice many times, but I was using every little excuse I could to get Jake to teach me. "Maybe I would know such things if Mr. Asshole Leader would let me get even ten feet near one."

"Your dad asked me to protect you. That's what I'm doing." 

"I'm sure Charlie wouldn't mind you teaching me how to save myself," I argued. He scoffed. 

"You're so stubborn," he said, walking around me without another look. I ran my fingers through my hair and followed him, trying to keep the familiar anger down.

We had stopped for the night in Lubbock, and planned on leaving tomorrow morning. We had portable tables set out, where people were talking in groups or listening to the radio. The colony in Brazil had managed to broadcast, and it was always the same voice with the same message. I decided to join the rest next to the radio.

The same honeyed voice I'd been hearing for the last month poured out of the speakers as I caught the end of the taping. "If you are out there, we can help you. We are located at the Serhs Natal Grand Hotel in Brazil. We offer food and shelter, free of infection. We have over two hundred survivors here. Please let us help you." The man's voice sent shivers up my spine; it terrified and excited me simultaneously, but it had nothing to do with what he was saying. I had to admit to myself that I'd started to grow a crush on this man after hearing his sexy voice for the last few weeks. I had to stop myself from listening to the recording all day. Sometimes I felt wrong to trust it, and other times I just felt retarded for thinking such things when clearly there were much more important things to worry about. I couldn't help but imagine a beautiful face and body joined with that voice, telling me everything would be okay. I tried to make excuses like _I only feel something for that man because he's the first person to give us real hope in so long_ or _it's just the depression finally setting in._

I shook my thoughts away quickly, disallowing myself to focus on it any deeper. I was being a silly girl, and it needed to stop.

That night, a commotion woke me up, and I rushed to the window to see what was going on. I could hear gunshots firing, but I couldn't see anything. The women around me woke up, too, looking around. I ran to the door and opened it. My eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I asked Paul, the man guarding our camper, what the hell was going on.

"Zombies," he said. "Not too many, though. About ten. I think they smelled the garbage and came to investigate." More gunshots…that meant Paul was lying to me. There had to be more than ten. What they were doing in the middle of the woods, I could not fathom. They mostly stuck to the cities. I looked around, trying to see more, but Paul pushed me back inside and closed the door. I ran to the window on the other side and peeked through.

He _was_ lying to me. Thirty, perhaps forty zombies were present in the clearing, I peered farther back and realized there were even more than that. With only seventeen men and lesser guns, we stood no chance. I ran back to the door, ignoring the girls' cries for information. I pushed the door open just in time to see a zombie bite into Paul's neck. He screamed out in pain. The other girls crowded behind me and started screaming like a bunch of banshees. The sound and sight of flesh being torn from bone had me frozen in place, but when the zombie let go of Paul's body and took a step toward me, looking at me with white eyes, I snapped into action. This was the closest I had ever been to one. He was wearing a tattered pair of overalls, and the top of his head was balding with a few matted gray hairs. Pieces of his cheeks were torn off, pale skin hanging from the bone. He must have been a farmer.

I grabbed the emergency fire extinguisher in the doorway and slammed it into his face just as his arms reached out for me. His head separated from his shoulders easily and fell to the ground with a dull _thunk._ I smiled in victory and held up my weapon for the next one coming toward me, not so far away. Before it got close enough to hit, however, a gun was fired behind me and killed the zombie. I looked back to my unneeded rescuer.

"I had it under control, Jacob. You should be helping the others," I said angrily.

"Get back inside," he ordered, taking me arm and pushing me back into the camper. I landed on my side on the floor and glared at him. "We're leaving. There's too many," he announced to all of us. I caught him looking down at Paul's body, void of emotion. He shot him in the head and closed our door before walking away. He drove the truck pulling us, and we were soon pulling back onto the highway.

We didn't stop again. We'd lost four men that night, and we weren't taking any more chances camping out anywhere. We headed straight to Brazil, never stopping for anything but gas. We didn't even look for more survivors on the way. I just kept to myself, not speaking unless spoken to. I listened to the man on the broadcast over and over, finally allowing myself to be drawn to the sweet tenor. I looked through the windows constantly, waiting for the moment we would arrive at the hotel safe house.

Finally, four days later, just when the sky turned dark, we drove close to a giant steel wall about twenty feet tall, obviously there to keep the monsters out. There were zombies surrounding it, so we didn't dare get any closer. We all stared in amazement as people on top of the wall waved flags at us. My heart beat fast in my chest with anticipation. Once we were inside that wall, everything would be okay. The trouble was…how were we going to get in?

"Look," Fran, one of the girls in the camper, said. "They're shooting flares that way. They want us to go around." Sure enough, we headed around and eventually came to a high barbed wire fence just outside the great wall. We watched as part of the steel wall opened like a garage door. A few men came out with guns and started shooting at the zombies trying to climb the barbed wire fence. I had never seen so many of the creatures at one time, and I was shaking at the thought that we'd have to go through them to get inside. More men came out and started shooting.

A man got out a microphone and started telling us how to get in. "You're going to have to get through here fast. We'll help keep them off of you," he said. We started moving quickly, running over zombies as we went. One leapt on our roof and started clawing at one of the windows, but the men inside the fences shot him off quickly. They opened the gate for us and let us through, firing off constantly. We went straight through the steel wall opening, and were greeted with many diverse, curious faces.

A/N: Can anyone guess whose voice it is on the radio? Haha. I don't plan on this being a very long story. Maybe 10-15 chapters. Should I continue it? Let me know with a review! 


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Well, I'll admit, I was a bit disappointed in the lack of reviews I got. Thank you to those who did review, though. I also understand not everyone is into zombies. I certainly wasn't until a few weeks ago. Hopefully I'll get better luck with this chapter.

* * *

February 2012

Edward

I knew I would always remember September 11, 2001. I remember being pulled out of class at my private middle school in Chicago by my overprotective mother, Esme, at about noon. The teachers had known about the bombing, but they weren't allowed to tell the students. My fellow students were so confused as one by one, parents came to collect their children without explanation. My mom finally told me what had happened when we got in the car and headed home. My dad was off that day, and when we walked into the house, the news on our 55 inch flat screen stared me in the face. I hadn't really understood what was going on, mostly because I had no idea how the disaster could possible affect a twelve year old child like myself.

But I was no child now, and disaster had struck again. The disaster was not born of jealousy or hate or greed of power like September 11th had been. It was pure nature, the apocalypse, but I couldn't decide which was worse. This new tragedy had certainly killed more people.

And I wouldn't have minded so much if they had actually stayed dead.

Just like September 11, 2001, I would remember that day in February 2012. And this time, it affected me a hell of a lot more.

* * *

We couldn't put a date to it, mostly because we didn't know when exactly it had started. I was in school to be a pharmacist, and I'd had two classes early every Tuesday, and each week on the same day, my dad and I would go out for sushi at lunchtime.

I opened the door to my shiny black Aston Martin, a special birthday gift from my parents months ago, and took my sunglasses from the case hanging from my rearview mirror. I was attempting to call my dad, my cell phone cradled in between my shoulder and my ear. He wasn't answering, which was very odd for him. He rarely had to cancel our Tuesday sushi dates, but he always called beforehand to let me know. I decided to drive by the hospital anyway; I didn't feel like going home if I didn't have to. I always thought living on my own would be great, a new adventure of sorts. It wasn't; I was always alone, bored, and dying to move back in with my parents just for the sake of company. All of my friends were married already, or had a girlfriend to choose over me. My only sibling was Rosalie, and she was no fun.

I drove up to the hospital, wishing I had a pass to park in the two story garage where the employees parked. No, I had to park far away and walk a whole seven minutes before finally reaching the doors. There were so many cars parked in the lot, and I knew why.

My dad had said the very day before that dozens of people came in, complaining of a virus. It wasn't just any virus, though. Unexplainably, he said the patients' skin had started to shed in some places, and their heart rates accelerated to the point that they should be dying. He said they were weak and couldn't concentrate on anything for very long, and their pupils were dilated in the extreme.

I wondered how many more people had come today, and sincerely hoped they found out what was going on soon. I certainly didn't need to catch anything.

The automatic sliding doors opened for me instantly, and I walked inside, planning on finding my father in his office. It was very quiet on the first floor, but it usually was. I took the elevator to my right, headed to the fourth floor.

When the doors opened and I stepped outside, I immediately realized something was wrong. The lights were off, as if the electricity had gone out on that one floor, and it was deathly quiet. I told myself not to panic, that something was just wrong with the electricity on that floor, so everyone moved to another floor until it was fixed.

Then I saw a light flickering down the hall. I walked towards it, holding my breath. There was the front desk where all the nurses flirted with me when I came around. I scrutinized before I got close. No one was at the desk from what I could see. Something was definitely not right, I could feel it.

I heard a few scuffling noises from far away, and noticed an emergency axe next to the staircase. Deciding it best to have a weapon just in case, I pulled up the bottom of my tee shirt and wrapped it around my elbow before breaking the glass and taking out the axe. The glass had cut me, but the shirt had stopped it from being too bad. The pain was minimal, and I was more worried about the noise I had made breaking it.

I gripped the handles with both of my hands, holding the weapon in front of me. I felt pretty silly holding an axe and creeping up quietly to the front desk. The feeling ended quickly, however, when I looked around the desk and saw a pool of blood right next to the keyboard of the computer. I held in my gasp and walking around as silently as possible. The blood was dripping to the floor, and I saw signs that whoever's blood it was had been dragged off. It was obvious from the way the blood trailed from the desk to the other side of the hall. I looked around again, hoping to find a gun under the desk. Instead, I saw a small figure crouched under the other end of the desk. Her back was to me, her arms covering her head, which was between her knees.

"Tanya?" I whispered. I had startled her, and she looked quickly in my direction. She observed the space and saw the axe in my hands before crawling out from her corner under the desk. She stayed on her knees, though, refusing to stand up.

"Are—are they gone?" she breathed. I walked a bit closer but didn't change my alert stance.

"Who?" I asked her. She looked terrified.

"The monsters. They took Kate, and I hid under here, hoping they wouldn't see me. There were so many of them," she said. Kate was the other desk worker, and I assumed it was her blood I was standing in.

"What happened here, Tanya?" I asked her, now anxious for my dad. What if these monsters had gotten him, too?

She shook her head frantically. "I don't know, Edward. It's a virus that's spreading like wildfire. They came in all yesterday and this morning, and then they started attacking. It's like rabies or something."

"My dad told me about the virus, but I don't think he had any idea about this," I said. I kept a watchful eye on our surroundings, still poised for anything. "Where is everyone? There's no way these…infected people have attacked everyone in this hospital. What about my dad? Do you know if he's even here?"

"I know nothing, Edward. It started early this morning, and I think I've been hiding here an hour. Dr. Cullen was here. I don't know if he got out or not," Tanya said.

I contemplated what to do next as I once again looked around. I could hear little noises here and there.

"Okay, Tanya, listen to me. Take the elevator down to the first floor. I just came from there, and it was clear. Just get yourself out. I'm going to look for my dad."

She shook her head again, tears pouring from her eyes. "I don't want to. I'm scared. What if they've come back since you've been up here?"

"Do you want to come with me?" I asked skeptically. She looked at the axe again and grimaced.

"No."

"Well, stay here, then. I can't promise I'll come back for you, though. If I find my dad, we're taking the first exit we see." She crawled back into the corner as I walked away to my dad's office. The sunlight coming in through the windows was my only source to see.

I finally reached my dad's office, surprised to find that the silver door handle was locked. I peeked into the small glass window, hoping to see him, but I couldn't see the whole room. I tried breaking the door open with my body, but had no luck. I looked around the hall one more time to make sure nothing was coming behind me. I kept hearing noises coming from another hall, but they weren't loud. I raised the axe in my hands and brought it down onto the doorknob. It took me a few more tries before I finally got it off, and I walked into the room.

I closed the door as best as I could and surveyed my father's office.

"Edward?" His voice came from under the desk, and I saw half his face peeking at me over the wood.

"Dad!" I ran to him and helped him up. His normally neat hair was all over the place, and his scrubs were torn in many places.

"Dear God, son, you-I thought you were one of those things!" I was about to ask him more when the scuffling noise got louder and closer.

That was the moment I came face to face with one of the monsters. It stumbled into the doorway behind me, snarling and growling. I couldn't even pull my eyes away. I couldn't think, frozen in place. My dad then pulled me out of my trance, tapping me and putting a finger to his mouth, indicating that I should remain silent.

The thing looked mutated, and I could see its ribs, as if something had pulled its skin off. It looked to have been once a man, but now it looked more animal than anything. Its head rolled around as if searching for something, but it didn't come any closer. I looked at my dad again, who pointed at the axe and made a swishing movement. I nodded, and pulled the axe over my head, prepared.

It started sniffing the air, and I realized that it was blind. When it caught our scent, however, it charged forward, arms rose. I met it with the axe, disbelief surging through my body.

I didn't think; I just brought the blade down on the monster's head. Blood squirted at me, coating my clothes and arms. I removed the blade from its skull with a sickening ploop as the thing fell to the ground and looked at my blood-soaked body. Panic took over.

Human or not, I had just killed a person.

"Wha—wa—wa—" I blabbered, staring at the bloodied axe. The room smelled like death and blood, and I felt bile rise in my throat.

My dad took hold of my shoulder, yelling at me. I couldn't concentrate on what he was saying. He dragged me toward the door, around the dead body.

When we reached the hall, however, my dad swore loudly and snapped me out of my trance. Not far down the hall, just past Tanya's desk, more of the monsters were walking towards us, through a breakage in the glass wall. The scuffling I had been hearing was their feet dragging on the floor. I gasped at how many there were, perhaps thirty? My dad clapped his hand over my mouth. They were walking quickly towards us. I looked at Carlisle, silently asking for a plan. He knew this hospital like the back of his hand—he had to know a way out.

He grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me back into his office. He ran to the window and started pushing it up, but it was stuck from misuse.

The monsters reached us; I held the door closed as best as I could. Four of them stood in the front, trying to claw their way through the door. One of them managed to break the door window and swatted at me. I had to lean back to avoid their teeth and fists.

"Edward!" my dad yelled once he got the window open.

"Are you crazy? You want us to jump?" He gave me a look that said _better jump than be eaten!_

He climbed through the window first, landing on the cement roof of the first floor. I knew once I let go of the door, they were going to catch me before I could climb through the window. Sacrificing my only weapon, I jammed it between the two door handles and ran to the window. It wouldn't hold for long, but I hoped it would give me a few seconds to climb through.

I cut my stomach on the window lock as I got through it. It wasn't deep, but I could feel the blood soaking into my shirt as I fell on the roof, and I knew I had just given them more ammo to find us with the smell. Carlisle pulled me back onto my feet and we broke into a sprint just as the things started breaking the window to get to us.

The closest building that we could jump to was the employee parking lot, and when I looked down at the ground, I saw that more of the monsters had escaped and were running amuck. Cars in the visitors' parking lot were being damaged and I thought of my baby, defenseless and too far for me to save. And I had just paid for a new set of rims!

We reached the end of the roof and surveyed the distance we would have to jump to get onto the parking lot. It was a far jump, but certainly one I could make. My father took a deep breath.

"You jump first," he said. I did without problem, but the exertion caused my wound to rip more. I grasped it in pain, telling my dad to be careful.

When he made it over safely, we started running down the parking lot. My dad was parked on the first floor, and we were on the third.

The beasts were here, too, flocking to the smell of my blood and the sound of our footsteps. We dodged and outran them, but there were so many. If even one of them got a hold on us, we were done for. It was lucky that they weren't crowded together, though; they weren't very strong apart, but together they were like a hive of killer bees.

_Just a few more steps_ became my mantra, and I repeated it until I finally saw Carlisle's car.

My lungs screamed in agony, and my calves were on fire. I could only imagine how my dad felt. He was in quite good shape for his age, but that didn't change the fact that he was old.

My dad threw the keys to his Mercedes to me. "You drive! My heart can't take much more!" I nodded, looking behind me. They were everywhere. I unlocked the doors when we got close enough, and prayed that we would be able to drive off before any of them tried to get in. If they could break the glass doors to the hospital, they could certainly break the windows of my father's car.

I jumped in, ignoring the seatbelt, and put the pedal to the metal before my dad had even closed his door. He curled up in the seat, covering his head and hyperventilating. I drove around to the exit, running over a few of the…things in the way.

Once I was sure he was okay, and his breathing had leveled out, I had to ask my dad.

"What the fuck is going on?"

He didn't answer me, instead reaching beneath me under the driver's seat. He emerged with a gun to my delighted surprise. He rolled open the sun roof and stood on the center console, firing shots off at the ones following us. He didn't sit back down until we got onto the highway. My hands were shaking, but my mind was starting to calm down.

"Dad, what happened? I saw Tanya when I walked in, but she couldn't explain everything."

"I don't know, Edward. I worked until about eight last night because there were so many people coming in with a virus. I told you, didn't I?" he asked. I nodded, not taking my eyes off the road. "Well, after I left, Dr. Gerandy, the brain surgeon, do you remember? Well, he called me and said some of the patients had gone absolutely crazy. They'd gone blind and their hearts stopped beating. They were supposed to be dead! He said he even moved some of them to the morgue, but there were so many. He said that a bit later, though, one of them reanimated. It came back to life! And it bit him before he could restrain it. I asked him if he wanted me to head back and help out, but he insisted that they could handle it, that it was no big deal.

"So, when I went in this morning, there were so many more and they just kept attacking, Edward. Gerandy…I watched him die, Edward! And then he got up and lunged for my throat! He didn't bite me, though. I think that's what causes it, the bite. It's not airborne; otherwise I'd be one, too, right now."

"Why didn't you just go home? Does anyone else know about it?"

"Yes! I made sure to call the police as soon as I knew how dangerous it was and how fast it was spreading. By the time we knew we needed to abandon ship, it was too late. There may have been five of us not infected. And they were everywhere; there was no way I could just run out through the front doors. They even started attacking other patients. The policeman on the phone said he would try to get SWAT to come. He said to wait in a closed space and hide until they came. So that's what I did. When you broke into my office, I thought it would be one of them. I completely forgot it was our sushi Tuesday, son. But even if I had remembered, my phone got pulverized."

"So they never came investigate?" I said incredulously.

"I don't know. I'm afraid it has spread farther than the hospital, Edward. We need to get home quickly. We'll get your mother and your sister and we'll leave as fast as we can."

I took the fastest way I knew home. When we got to our neighborhood, I noticed other households packing suitcases into cars. I wondered how many people knew about the disaster, and just how bad it had gotten since yesterday.

When we walked into the house, my mom grabbed us both in a violent hug. I felt her tears on my neck as she sobbed.

"I was so worried that I would never see my boys again!" she cried, finally letting us go. My dad wiped her tears and whispered soft words of endearment. I gave them their moment and walked into the kitchen. There were suitcases scattered everywhere, and canned food covered the table.

"Edward!" my sister, Rosalie, came down the stairs quickly and hugged me, something she hadn't done in a very long time.

"I'm guessing you know about what's going on?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "It was on the news early this morning, but they didn't make it seem like a big deal. But a few hours ago they said everyone needed to evacuate out of the city. But Edward, they won't tell us what's going on, only that it's an emergency and we all need to leave." Her big hazel eyes were round with fear, and it was clear she'd been crying.

"Shit, they won't even announce the reason?" I said. Our parents came in then. Esme had the same questions as Rose.

"What's really happening, Carlisle?" Mom asked. He looked at me and surveyed the wreck that had become our house, undoubtedly thinking about how much our lives were going to change.

"The virus I told you about last night…well, it's spread like wildfire. At first, it was just killing people, but they—they—"

"They didn't stay dead," I finished for him. My mom gasped. "I went to pick up dad at the hospital for lunch and the place had been completely wiped out. They started attacking us."

Rose sat down on the table. "Like—like—"

"Zombies," my mom concluded, her voice laced with disbelief. She was the only one courageous enough to actually say it. I nodded, remembering all the zombie horror movies I had watched in my lifetime. They were always so much fun and exciting. Now they didn't seem so great.

Without another word, my family started packing everything important into bags in my mom's SUV. I went into the living room and turned on the television, trying to find out just how much was being kept secret.

They were lying by omission. Not once did the news broadcasters talk about the zombies. All they talked about was the virus and how it was killing many people and we were advised to leave as soon as possible to avoid infection. I knew this wouldn't go over well with many people, and no one would really listen unless they knew the truth; they were going to be attacked. As for the hospital, all that was said was that it was no use to go because there was no cure and the hospital was full anyway.

Later, when we were ready to leave, my mom and dad wanted to take one car so as to not lose anyone. I insisted that we needed two cars, just in case one of them broke down. My dad offered to let me drive his car, but I wanted my Aston Martin. They ignored my request, but I bitched until they finally agreed to bring me to the hospital to grab it.

After picking up my dad's mom, our only other living relative, we drove to the hospital to pick up my car. My mom stared at the zombies in disbelief, trying one more time to talk me out of it. My dad just handed me a gun once we were close enough to my car.

There were a few that had gotten out of the hospital and employee parking lot and were now wandering around the visitor parking lot, but none were remotely close to my car. When I got to my baby, I noticed a few scratches on the hood, as if someone had climbed on it, and the back passenger window was broken. I thanked heaven that it wasn't as bad as it could have been, and climbed into the driver's seat. My family was waiting for me at the gate.

Once on the highway, I was finally able to breathe again. I ran my fingers through my hair and looked back at the city disappearing. Then something in my rearview mirror caught my attention.

"AHHH!" I screamed, ducking my head to avoid the decapitated hand that shot out at me. It caused me to swerve, and I looked up again to see the zombie in my backseat lean forward and snap his teeth in my direction. With my left hand on the wheel, I fisted my right and punched his nose as hard as I could with my position. It shot him back and gave me a few seconds to grab the gun I had placed on the passenger seat. I put a bullet through his head, and I was elated for a second until he keeled over and I saw the bullet had punctured my leather seat and was full of blood. "Fuck!"

* * *

I shook my head to bring me out of my memories. We still hadn't found out how the infection started, but we were sure that it was all over the world. For a while, Australia had been the safe place, but before we could even develop plans to head there, the virus had reached there, too.

Over the course of two months, my family and I had stayed in various places before finally settling in Brazil. South America had not been hit as hard and had more survivors than North. We collected many uninfected people and found the hotel, which was already occupied by many people, mostly soldiers who had the great idea to go there. The steel wall had already been built, and we decided this was the best place to stay for the time being. It became the closest thing to home we had had in a long time. In the beginning, there had only been about fifty survivors staying there, and most of them either spoke Portuguese or Spanish. My dad convinced me that I should make a recording that stated that we had shelter and food, and hopefully more people would come. I did a week after we got settled in.

I soon learned the languages of the people who had made the hotel into a safe house, and spoke those into the radio as well. Soon, we started getting new survivors almost every day. Most came in packs; some were just a few lucky souls. A few times we were forced to kill a newcomer who had tried to hide his bite marks. Those were the hardest times.

I became friends with an old Mexican soldier, Jose, and his wife, Abby. They had four young children who I'd grown fond of. Jose had numerous guns and weapons, and one day he showed me how to use them all. He even trained me how to fight, and later on I got to join the men at the top of the wall who shot as many zombies in a day as they could. Bullets were as precious as water, and I knew when we ran out there would be much trouble. So we couldn't miss a single shot.

It wasn't exactly _fun, _but it was better than being dead. My life was focused on one thing, just like the rest of us: survival. Nothing else mattered. I did my best to save the people who were here. Killing was second nature to me now; I didn't even think about the fact that those we killed were once mothers or fathers or children or siblings. At first it had been hard, especially when I saw someone who looked to have resembled my mom or my father or Rosalie when he or she had been human.

And then at some point, I didn't feel so human anymore, either.

* * *

One day in early June, I was on duty in the tower above the wall, watching. I saw a new caravan coming and alerted the other men from my walkie talkie. They immediately started the routine of letting them in, and I peered through the periscope of my M24, waiting for the zombies to crowd around.

I shot one off the roof of one of the campers and a few more trying to climb over the fence, keeping in touch with the other men so we didn't waste bullets shooting the same target.

"Disparo agradable, Edward," Jerold said to me. I chuckled and thanked him.

I watched as the newcomers exited from their campers and Hummers, wondering where they were from. I couldn't really make out their skin or hair colors from so far away. I normally was not this curious, but they had more survivors in their group than most. I looked at the other snipers along the wall below me, checking to see if they had it. _They'll be fine for a minute_, I thought, and moved to the other side of the cramped tower to get a better look.

I knew Jose would have my head for this; I was not supposed to move from my position at all while on duty, but curiosity had me by the throat and was bribing me with a surprise.

I looked down at them from the reinforced Plexiglas, but they were still just little dots. I brought the rifle to my face and looked through the periscope again, this time for much different reasons.

First I saw my dad. He shook hands with a burly looking Native American man. I looked at the others quickly. By the expression on their faces, I could tell they were relieved, and the thought brought a smile to my face, knowing we were the reason for these people's sudden happiness.

I started turning back to the Native American man talking to my father, sure that he was the leader of their group, but through the magnified glass, something else caught my attention.

The first thing I saw was her ass, not because I was trying to, of course, only because that's where my line of sight was aimed when I moved the gun.

It was nice and round, but not big, covered by tight jeans. I couldn't help but zoom in more. She had a hand propped on her left hip and made her curves jut out more on the right side. I dragged my gaze down to long, slender, feminine legs.

She turned sideways while I brought the scope back up again, wanting to see her face and hoping that it was as perfect as the rest of her.

Uncontrollable, I let my eyes survey her long, elegant neck, and then her face. She was looking at something, so I only got a three quarter view, but it was perfect. She was perfect.

Her long brown hair was in a ponytail, pulling it away from her pale, heart shaped face. I could even see the light blush that tinted her cheekbones. Then her big, brown doe eyes swiveled up to me.

I ducked like I'd been shot, embarrassed. It wasn't until I was on the ground that I realized that I was way too far up for her to even see me. I slapped a hand to my forehead and tried to slow my stupid, erratic heartbeat. I rolled my eyes at myself and walked back to my post, ignoring the urge to look at her one more time.

_What the hell did I do that for?_ I kept thinking. I felt very rude for having stared at her ass for so long, and then I got mad at myself for even caring. I hadn't looked at any girl's ass since before the virus spread, nor had I really wanted to.

I tried to shrug it off to the fact that it had been almost a year since I'd gotten laid. But the idea made me uneasy, not because it had been so long for me, but because I didn't want to think of her _like that_. It was as if thinking of her being a toy, a piece of ass, was a sin. It _angered_ me to the point that my face got hot and my heart sped up again.

"¿Está bien usted? Suena raro, Edward," one of the men said on the walkie talkie.

"Soy fino," I lied.

_Edward Cullen, you are crazy._

_

* * *

_

A/N: Okay! This chapter made me happy! I got the translations from freetranslation . com, so I'm sorry if they're not perfect.

Disparo agradable –Nice shot

¿Está bien usted? Suena raro. –Are you okay? You sound weird.

Soy fino. – I am fine.

Anyway, add me on twitter Bethanie818. I will update Stranded soon and No Such Thing as Love as well.

Next chapter, Bella meets Edward!

REVIEW PLEASE! If you do, you get a preview of the next chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hello! New chapter time! Thank you to everyone who reviewed and added my stories to their faves and alerts! It makes me so happy!**

**Until the End**

**Chapter Three**

**Bella**

I stared at the small ridges in the wall, imagining faces made out of them, faces that were never there once I looked at the same place a second time. My plate of spaghetti lay in my lap, barely touched and starting to get cold. The light snores of Jessica and Lauren reached my ears, but I paid no attention.

After settling into the hotel and unpacking all of our belongings, the kind man named Carlisle Cullen invited us to rest in some of the rooms of the hotel. Jacob gladly accepted his offer and stuck me in here with the girls, probably thinking we would get along together. He was very mistaken; ever since we'd started this godforsaken trip, I'd been subjected to their giggles and whisperings about me. But I wasn't about to say anything. We had enough problems as it was. My girl troubles were quite insignificant in the general view of things.

It was dark now, probably about eight, and my body was exhausted, but my mind was going 100 miles per hour. I couldn't even think of sleeping with the incredible relief that we were finally safe. I was sitting at the table that was provided in the hotel room, holding my face in my hands, my elbows bent on top of the table.

I'd finally taken a hot shower for the first time since we'd packed up and left Washington. It had been unbearable in the earlier months when it was freezing, but it got a little more tolerable once spring started. But taking cold bath after cold bath, using the same water as twenty other people can be understandably annoying. The hot water running over my skin had felt like heaven; all the dirt and sadness drained down into the bottom of the tub.

I got up from my chair, setting my spaghetti in the middle of the table. Maybe I would eat it later. I walked over to the only window in the room and opened the curtain. We were on the sixth floor, and the height was just above the top of the steel wall. I couldn't see any zombies from here, for which I was thankful. I saw a few people on the ground outside, chatting and such. Straight across from me, far away, was the ladder that the men climbed on to get on the landing of the wall to shoot at the monsters. There was another ladder that led to a sole compartment just big enough for about four people. It was just a small circular area with a wall of bricks that would reach a man to his waist. I supposed another soldier stood watch there at all times. _How boring it must be there sometimes, just waiting for something to happen… _I closed the curtain and climbed into the other bed, falling asleep only when I forced my mind to clear.

The next morning I woke up early, long before Jessica and Lauren. I walked out of the room and down the stairs. Six flights and a pain in my side later, I was on the patio next to the unused pool. I saw Jake talking to Sam and decided he had ignored me long enough. I wanted to talk.

However, as soon as I reached him, he deflected me and ordered me to join some of the other women eating breakfast. I glared at him before obliging. I sat down at one of the wooden tables next to two women speaking Spanish. I had just grabbed a Styrofoam plate when I heard someone say my name.

"Oh my God. Bella fucking Swan." I turned towards the potty mouth, recognizing the voice with disbelief.

I ran to the little pixie and jumped on her, bringing us both to the ground.

"Hey, girl, watch the Jimmys." I looked down at Alice Brandon's high heels.

"Only you, Mary Alice Brandon, would wear Jimmy Choos even after the apocalypse." She rolled her eyes and smiled with a face that said, 'I know.'

She threw her arms around me again. "I missed you so much, Bella! I knew you were alive. Just wait till I tell Jasper!"

"Jasper is here?" I asked.

"Yes!" she yelped, looking over her shoulder for him.

I had met Alice Brandon my sophomore year of high school. I didn't really have any friends, not because I was stuck up but because I was very shy. I was a non-conformist; I never considered myself to be better than anyone, but I knew I didn't want to dress or act like any of the other girls in my classes. I wore plaid button down shirts and jeans. My hair was always down because I didn't grow into my freaky ears until two years later.

Alice Brandon had been expelled from her old high school in Port Angeles freshman year and moved to Forks High in the middle of March. I knew of her but we didn't share any classes that semester. Then the next year, we had the same lunch. I'd been eating an apple and reading _A Clockwork Orange_ for the fourth time, feeling like a badass for not even cringing at the rape scene—though I had the first time I'd read it, but that was beside the point—when Alice sat next to me and told me my torso was beautiful and that I was punishing it with hideous clothing every day. We'd been inseparable ever since. I later learned that she'd told a girl at her old school that if she would lose ten pounds, she could fit one of Alice's olive sweaters that would go perfect with her skin tone and eye color. Apparently the girl didn't appreciate the 'compliment' and decked Alice, who fought back in defense. They were both expelled, thus how Alice came to be at my school.

"Jazzy! Look what I found!" Alice dragged me towards her boyfriend of nearly two years. Gone was the pale complexion of Jasper's skin. He was sun kissed from his forehead to the tips of his fingers. His blond hair was shaggy and much longer than it had been in February.

"Oh my gosh! It's Bella!" Jasper exclaimed, taking me into a tight hug. "This is a miracle!"

"I know! I feel like I'm dreaming. You guys don't know how glad I am to see you!" Before I knew it, tears were streaming down my face and Alice was comforting me.

"Bella, sweetheart, it's okay. You're safe now; there's no need to cry," Alice said.

I shook my head, trying to make myself stop crying. "I know, Alice. But I've gone so long with no one. All I have is Jacob, and sometimes I feel like I don't even want him around anymore."

"What do you mean no one? You have Charlie," she said, patting my back. That only made me sob harder.

I shook my head. "Charlie didn't make it, Alice." I heard her gasp.

"I'm so sorry, Bella," she said. "Well, you have us now. You're not alone." The last three words calmed me, and the sting in my eyes faded.

I wiped the leftover tears and attempted a smile. "You're right, Al."

"I love you, girl."

"I love you, too."

I ate a hefty breakfast to make up for my lack of dinner the night before and hung out with Alice and Jasper for hours. She told me about how they had tried to go to Australia and had been turned around just in time. Then she and her family wandered around, trying to keep safe until they heard about the safe place here.

"I've just about got Portuguese down. And I learned how to say _get off my dick_ in Spanish yesterday. You should be proud," Alice said.

"Oh, I am, believe me."

I was telling her more about how my dad had died and the whole situation with Jacob when a brawny, tall man walked up to us and shook Jasper's hand.

"Good luck, man. Don't fall asleep this time," the man chuckled as Jasper got up and took a gun from the man's back.

Jasper scoffed, looking back at Alice and me. "Don't listen to him; he's the one who always dozes off." The man chuckled as Jasper kissed Alice and walked away. I gave Alice a questioning look, completely confused. She quickly started to explain.

"Bella, this is Emmett. He helps guard the walls just like almost every man here that's able to. He and Jasper have the same job with different shifts. Jasper is taking over for the next few hours."

We shook hands and he and Alice made easy conversation. After just ten minutes of listening to him talk, I could tell Emmett was an optimistic, outgoing guy. He smiled constantly and had both Alice and me laughing after everything he said.

Not long later while the three of us watched everyone cleaning up their dinner, a voluptuous blond woman came over, her hands on her hips and her eyes glaring at Emmett. He stood up from the wooden bench and mimicked her stance, though his glare was more comical than anything.

"What have I done this time?" he asked her.

"Your face," she replied, not even sparing Alice and me a glance.

"What about my face?" he asked, amusement coloring his tone.

"It irritates me."

"Would you like for me to get a new one? Cause you sure weren't complaining about _my face _the other night—"

"You little bastard!" she exclaimed, walking up to him and shoving a finger into his chest. "How dare you make up such things in front of people? If you think for one second that you can tarnish my reputation with your lies—"

"Oh, you just don't want to face it, blondie. You want me so much that you don't know what to do with yourself," Emmett laughed out, smiling at her.

"You arrogant son of a—"

"Bitch? I know you are but what am I?" he finished immaturely. Alice and I couldn't help but laugh at the show we were getting. "You even make up reasons to argue with me just so you have a reason to come talk to me! I know the way you work, Missy, and I'm not falling for this little act of pretending to hate me."

"Bah!" the woman growled, frustrated. She turned on her heel without another word and walked away.

"I love you, too!" Emmett shouted back. He turned around to face us again, his cheeks pink.

"What was that about?" I asked, still laughing.

"That's Rosalie. She's Carlisle's daughter. And she's madly in love with Em here, but she would die before admitting it," Alice said, patting Emmett on the back.

"S'okay. She'll come around eventually," he said, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. He left a few minutes later, muttering something that sounded an awful lot like, "Damn woman."

"You'll stay with me from now on, won't you, Bella?" Alice asked.

"Um…" I hesitated. "Don't you and Jasper want to be together? Alone?"

"Hah! Jasper usually works the night shift. I'm all on my lonesome most nights, so you should stay with me from now on. Tonight, though, Edward has the job."

"Oh, okay," I said, a little disappointed. I wished this Edward would take the shift now and then Jazz could work later and I'd have my best friend. Honestly, I didn't want to let her out of my sight, afraid she would disappear again.

"You've met Edward, haven't you?" Alice asked.

I shook my head and Alice giggled. "Well, you definitely want to," she said.

"I do?"

"Oh, yeah, he's a total hunk. He's Rosalie's brother, but don't worry, he's nothing like her."

"Alice, I'm not here to search for a boyfriend."

"Hey, I'm just saying. Just wait till you see him. He's not hard to miss; he wears these cargo camouflage pants and a black tank a lot of the time, and he _always_ has a big gun over his shoulder. And sometimes, when it's really hot, he wears a black sweatband around his forehead. He is the definition of the word _soldier."_ She winked at me mischievously.

I awarded her with an eye roll and got up from our table.

"Is there any way I can wash some clothes?"

I hung out with Alice for the rest of the day. She showed me around the whole place and I met a few other people who spoke English. Alice, being the social butterfly that she was, stopped and talked to just about everyone, even if they couldn't understand what each other was saying.

I washed my clothes and helped the cooks prepare dinner later on, but before we could eat, Alice insisted that I join her in grabbing Jasper from his post since he was about to finish his shift. I reluctantly followed her, trying to ignore the smell of red beans and rice in the other direction.

When we reached the wall where Jasper was, there was already a man there, kneeled down and checking a gun. Jasper was descending from the ladder of the highest point of the wall.

"Hello, Edward," Alice said cheerfully. "Checking your gun for the five-hundredth time today?" She turned and gave me a quick smirk.

The man's eyes swiveled up to the pair of us, and I had to bite my lip to keep from gasping. He _was _a hunk. A _total _hunk. He examined Alice before looking over to me. Without a word, he slowly stood up, apparently satisfied with the weapon in his hands. I made sure to keep eye contact with those beautiful green orbs, but staring at his perfect face was like staring at the sun. It hurt. He was tall, easily six feet, and very tan. His hair was a light brown-red with a few natural looking blond streaks. He wore a pair of black cargo pants and a black tank, paired with white Nikes on his feet. What really got my attention, though, was the belt around his waist that held two giant knives on both sides of his body.

Without really acknowledging us, he slung the gun around his shoulder and looked up at Jasper.

Alice was not to be ignored, however. "Edward, this is my friend Bella. She's part of the group that came here yesterday."

Edward—being polite, I suppose—merely nodded in my direction. But before Alice could release her fury on him, Jasper touched down on the ground and greeted Edward. The next moment, Edward was climbing the ladder quicker than need be. If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought he was running from us.

"What crawled up his ass?" Alice asked Jasper loud enough for Edward to still hear.

"Oh, you should be used to it by now, Al," Jasper said, wrapping an arm around her and turning her back the way we came—toward the food.

I followed a few feet behind them, not nearly as disappointed as Alice was about Edward ignoring me. Like I'd said before, I had more important things to worry about.

Just one more time out of curiosity, though, I turned around and looked up at the man called Edward.

He was already at the top of the tower, sitting and seemingly looking right at me. I couldn't make out his face, however, because it was dark out and he was quite far up. As soon as he saw that I was looking, he immediately stood up and turned his back to me, looking down at the zombies outside the wall.

_How strange, _I thought, turning back to Alice. _He didn't even say one word._

A/N: Oh, how sorry I am! But I'm back…again. This story gives me the most difficulty because it's the least developed of all the ones I have. Unlike Stranded and No Such Thing, I don't know exactly how this story ends; I started on a whim, and it's hard to just go with it, but I'm trying. Maybe if I write short chapters, I can dish them out more often. The other stories haven't been posted because I wouldn't allow myself to write the others till I finished this chapter. But it's finished now, so the others should be updated soon!

PS: I am having surgery on June 21st, and I'll be on bed rest for 6 weeks. Expect me to write more then :)

Please review!


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